VDZ-Akademie: Paid Content in der Praxis




Nick Blunden, Economist präsentiert
ein Hybrid Modell für Paid Content

 

Mitte Mai fand in Hamburg unter der Leitung von Bastian Schwithal ein Expertenforum zum Thema "Paid Content" statt, bei dem eine Reihe von Medien ihre Strategien im Internet präsentierten, mit dem sie jetzt und in Zukunft Beiträge der UserInnen generieren wollen. Die Strategie des WirtschaftsBlatt durften wir dabei auch präsentieren.
Besonders interessant erschienenen mir dabei die Fallstudien von Economist sowie die klaren digitalen Stratgien von Axel Springer und Gruner & Jahr.
Nick Blunden, Chef der digitalen Portale des Economist, berichtet, dass die sozialen Netzwerke die wichtigen Einfallstore seiner Plattformen sind. Die User, die so die digitalen Produkte des Wirtschaftsmagazins anschnuppern, sollen in weiterer Folge zum Kauf von Abos animiert werden - in der Sprache der E-Commerce-Experten geht es also um Funnel-Prozesse. Das Modell, ein Teil der Inhalte sind gratis, jener Teil, der sich an besonders interessierte und häufig wiederkehrende User richtet ist vergebührt, nennt sich Metered Modell. Das Interview mit Blunden gibt es hier.

Georg Konjovic, Leiter des Bereichs Premium Content bei Axel Springer, berichtete über Erfolge des Medienkonzerns auf neuen Plattformen wie dem iPad. So kann Axel Springer ja sowohl für Welt als auch für Bild als Erfolg verbuchen, erfolgreich zahlende Tablet-User mit seinen Apps gewonnen zu haben. In Österreich gibt es erst wenige Zeitungen, die für ihren digitalen Content auf dem iPad User-Beiträge verlangen.

Volker Breid von G&J illustrierte am Beispiel Abnehmcoach der xx-well.com AG, die mittlerweile von G&J gekauft wurde, wie ein Multi-Marken-Titel erfolgreich ein Geschäftsmodell auf vielen Plattformen ausrollen kann. Der Ernährungsberater, der bei Brigitte Frauen dabei hilft, nach der Schwangerschaft die Figur zuükzugewinnen, wird bei Men's Health in adaptierter Form als Fitness-Coach gelauncht. Auf den eigenen Plattformen ist der Inhalt vergebührt, auf Partneplattformen - darunter etwa Versicherung - auch manchmal kostenlos.

Interaktive Werbung auf dem iPad

WirtschaftsBlatt deluxe als iPad App

Es gibt nun schon eine Mege sehr ansprechender iPad-Apps aus Österreich, besonders gut gefällt mir die jüngst publizierte App vom Gratis-Magazin Weekend. Hier werden wirklich attraktive Ideen umgesetzt, wie etwa eine Rundumansicht einer Therme oder die Anreicherung des Magazin-Contents durch bewegte Bilder und Ton.
Auch einige Werbe-Sujets, wie etwa das der ÖBB, wurden attraktiv gestaltet. Mit dem Finger können die User das Innere eines Wagens erkunden und sich so die Werbelandschaft auf dem iPad zur Forschungsreise machen.
Nun hat eine Studie der University of Connecticut herausgefunden, dass diese interaktiven Werbungen eine höhere Aufmerksamkeit, positive Attribuierung und letztendlich auch höhere Kaufbereitschaft erzeugen.
Das Ergebnis ist ein neues Paradigma der Markenwerbung", so Dave Dickson, der die Studie auf dem Adobe Blog zitiert. "Marken können die Konsumenten in der digitalen Umwelt eines Magazins umfassend einbeziehen - im Gegensatz zur unterbrechenden Form der übrigen digitalen Werbung."

Unterbrecher-Werbung macht Spaß

Take Away: Unterbrecher-Werbung wurde Ende der 90er Jahre mit dem Siegeszug der Online-Werbung mental zu Grabe getragen. Es hieß, dass nur virale Werbung, die von User zu User weiterempfohlen wird, Zukunft habe. Userbefragungen zeigen, dass gut gemachte Werbung von den Usern aber durchaus geliebt wird. Es muss also nicht immer ein lustiger YouTube-Spot erfolgreich sein.

Werbung kann Spaß machen, das ist das Ergebnis einer Umfrage des US-Branchendienstes eMarketer, der von iPad-Besitzern wissen wollte, wie diese zu Werbung in Magazin-Applikationen stehen.

Werbung auf dem iPad kommt gut an, zumindest wenn die Werbemittel die Möglichkeiten des Endgerätes nutzen, insbesondere große Fotos, Bildergalerien, Videos, Animationen und Musik.
86 Prozent der befragten iPad-Besitzer geben an, dass ihnen die tollen Fotos und hellen Visuals positiv aufgefallen sind, 82 Prozent bemerken interaktive Features. 75 Prozent der User sind demnach interessiert an Werbung in iPad-Applikationen, die Videos abspielen, 73 Prozent wünschen sich dazu weitergehende Produktinformationen, 71 Prozent wollen Bildergalerien. Nur 27 Prozent der User möchten Spiele in den Werbeanzeigen sehen.
Geliebte Unterbrecher.

Für die Medienbranche sind diese Ergebnisse beruhigend, stellte doch im Jahr 2000 Seth Godin ("permission Marketing") fest, dass Interruption Marketing, als unterbrechende Werbung, mit dem Internet endgültig am Ende sei. Zehn Jahre später kehrt diese Unterbrecher-Werbungstärker denn je zurück. Werbung auf dem iPad funktioniert, wenn sie relevant ist, Spaß macht, Information bietet und am Ende damit für die User nützlich ist. Die Konsumenten verbringen dabei die für die Werbebranche unvorstellbare lange Zeit von 17,8 Sekunden mit der Betrachtung von Werbeanzeigen. Gemessen an diesen iPad-Werten kann jede Werbe-Email und jede Google-AdWords-Anzeige einpacken.

iPad verkauft sich weit besser als erwartet

Die Gerüchte hatten auch wir gehört, das iPad verkauft sich besser, als Apple das erwartet hatte. Nun folgt die Bestätigung von eMarketer. Der US-Spezialinfodienst geht von einem Verkaufszuwachs für 2011 in der Höhe von 127 Prozent für das iPad aus. Bislang hat Apple in den USA rund 8,5 Millionen Stück abgesetzt und somit einen Marktanteil von knapp 90 Prozent des Tablet-Marktes.
Im kommenden Jahr werden demnach 20 Millionen iPads von Apple abgesetzt, so eMarketer, 2012 sogar 30 Millionen. Der Marktanteil von Apple soll bei über 75 Prozent bleiben. Wenig erstaunlich: Die Besitzer der glänzenden Surfstationen sind nicht mehr ganz junge, aber dafür umso kaufkräftigere Erwachsene.

Charge for mobile content now or never!

Robber barons on their way to charge for digital content

Takeaway: The "App" will dominate over the "Browser" in the coming years. This opens the unique chance to introduce payment options for digital content. But it is a "one and then gone" chance. So make sure your newspaper does not miss it.


Maybe the iPad gives us some insight, what the future usecase for the newspaper will be.
Newspapers experienced an online problem in the past years: They gave away their content for free and are now looking for new digital revenue streams as their print revenues are shrinking. Look at Rupert Murdoch, what happens now: Newspapers like "The Times" which  are changing to "Paid Content" models are now facing hard times with their ad revenues, because the sponsors are not ready to advertise behind payment walls.

So let's take the facts in chronological order to see what changes the mobile age has to offer the industry. And what necessary implications this has for recentproduct development.

The lost Google wars. 
First newspapers had to face new competitors, that attracted their audiences: From the shopping portals (eBay) to the search engines (Google) to the web portals (Yahoo).
Newspaper Portals took their lessons, optimized for search engines, which resulted in more traffic. From 2002 on, due to the rise of Google, all web content had to be free. Remember, that after the Dotcom crash in 2000, all experts had predicted rising paid content revenues. But then all papers still changed their strategies to free models, except for the Wall Street Journal, all in fear to loose groundagainst direct competition.

For the fish
Few newspapers were able to monetize this search engine traffic, as they struggled hard to turn SEO-visits into returning visits. It can be compared with the paper that is used to wrap the fish: it could be any paper for the fish and it will not produce the next newspaper sale.
Far more: papers got "addicted"to newspaper traffic, as CPMs dramatically fell and the only way to stabilize online revenues was to optimize the Google & Co traffic sources

So the search engine strategy failed and moreover users of the fallen papers where not ready to pay for the online content.

Now for the first time since 2000 newspapers face a real chance to introduce paid content again with the iPad. According to a recent study of the Ball State University, iPad-Users prefer reading newspapers on their iPads. The new device therefore outbeats the traditional paper and the online editions.

And with "App" as the dominating presentation layer, the access barrier (Log-In) is automatically back in users daily routine. If you read the App-Comments of most Apps, you realize, that many users still dislike payments and Log-Ins, but still, more than 90 percent are ready to use these apps.

Conclusion: So with more devices to come, think of HTC with its Windows Phone, think of Nokia and all the Android  mobiles, the app will dominate over the web-browser. And with that paid content strategies have a chance to succeed. Still, if you give away the content for free now in an app, you will once again not be able to charge for it later.
For us all in newspaper business: Let us not miss this chance.

iPad Gold Rush: Advertisers are ready to pay premium fees

Take away: As so often Apple surprises the industry: In a magic gold rush advertisers are ready to pay premium fees for advertising on the iPad-editions of magazines and newspapers, Wall Street Journal reports.

Time magazine has signed up Unilever, Toyota Motor, Fidelity Investments and at least three others for marketing agreements priced at about $200,000 apiece for a single ad spot in each of the first eight issues of the magazine's iPad edition, according to people familiar with the matter. And what about newspapers? Six advertisers, including Coca-Cola and FedEx, have agreed to advertise with the Wall Street Journal, and a four-month ad package costs $400,000, according to these people, who are involved. Coke and FedEx declined to comment on terms.

iPad and sustainability of the gold rush There is the car maker Ford for example, who will advertize a game on the New York Times iPad-App. Ok, it seems as if the media industry sees a lot of advertising chances on the iPad. Strange, why didn't this advertising gold rush happen on the mobile devices, on the mobile and iphone editions of New York Times, Time, and WSJ? As I argued before, the media industry has this idea, just similar to the publishers soncept, that the iPad brings back the good old times. But these times, in which we were able to advertise directly to a community, are gone. Gone, forever. Nowadays advertising is much more complicated with all the fragmentation going on.
Be there with your message on Twitter, on Facebook on iPhone, on iPad, on Android, on Google, on Bing, on... Would be nice, if the iPad could get us all some relieve on that. It is simply not the case.

Soon advertisers, like Ford, will realize, that it makes much more sense to publish their own iPad-Apps, than to ad videos to the iPad-version of NYT.
This is sad news for the advertisers but good news follow the way. Because in a third step newspapers, magazines and advertisers will merge their ambitions. NYT will advertize its app on the Ford-App, and Ford will advertise on the NYT-App. And together they will form strong communication bundles. The brand will always have a value, traffic will be a chance to reach audiences. But the big questions for newspapers and magazines remain: How do we make money, as ad revenues (iPad-gold rush) will not stay forever. The answer is: Re-add value to the content. Multi-media-enrichment is one approach, journalism another.
The WSJ plans to charge subscribers $17.99 a month for iPad subscriptions, according to a person familiar with the matter. (Ha!Chinese Walls! This is what the WSJ reports ;-)) I personally like this Wall Street approach. The iPad-version is now nearly double the price of the online edition. The more techy it gets, the higher the price. Yesss, we can!

Why online guys may not love the iPad so much

Mario Garcia and Alexis Johann

TAKEAWAY: The print folks in the newsroom seem to be more excited about the iPad and what it may offer than the guys on the online desk. Could it be a case of sibling rivalry? I think so, says Mario Garcia

Last Friday I met Mario Garcia, who helped us to take baby steps with the iPad, that will be released in a few days. We discussed the chances, that the ipad offers for newspapers. As always with Mario, the session was very inspiring, challenging and fruitful. Mario blogged some of our findings today. And this is what he says:

Not so sure about that little brother on the way
Oh, the iPad, one could write constantly about it, from the practical (how to sketch something that will not be flat but not too visually overpowering—-let’s not use the word Flashy in connection with the iPad, please), to the serious (how much can we charge for, let’s say, the download of a single four-page feature?), to the more philosophical (will it ever replace the pleasure of flipping printed pages?).

Then comes the question that nobody is expecting.
Here I am, conducting a little workshop with the talented team of Austria’s WirtschaftsBlatt last week. Alexis Johann, the clever and inquisitive manager of all things digital at WB, asks: Mario, do you think that the iPad is closer to print or online.

Good question, and coming from the young man who heads online here, I know that there is more to it than simple curiosity.

I am thinking about my response, so Alexis helps me:

“You see, for some reason I sense that the print people this time are more excited about this new development than the online people.“

Really?, I say, genuinely surprised, but understanding fully.

And so, after the meeting, I was thinking about this part of the session. Indeed, if you ask me, iPad dynamics are closer to print than to online. The iPad as an instrument is as close as we come to a book or a printed page. You hold it in your hand, you can flip pages, you can read columns of type. And, of course, you have the “pop up book” effect when that video of Lady Gaga singing Paparazzi appears.

But there could also be a reason why the online people are not, let’s say, as animated about the iPad as their print counterparts in the newsroom.

Ok, let’s do the analogy with siblings in a family. When there are two children already and Mom announces that #3 is coming, the oldest child may show a great deal of excitement, but the second one (the baby) will not be. Suddenly, his/her status is going to be usurped. This could be the case here.

Online has reigned supreme as that which is new, modern, with it, fast and young. Suddenly comes the iPad, complete with a new gadget as platform, and with the promise of providing the revenue that online so far has not, and you get the picture.

By the way, perhaps I am thinking of sibling rivalries here because in my family, my own daughter, Ana Barravecchio, is about to have her third child, another boy, in late May. Well, her 5-year-old Angelina is all excited about another little brother; however, 3-year-old Frankie does not want to hear the word “little brother”. He, too, knows that his days as “the baby” are counted.

Sibling rivalries are nothing new. For the newsroom, they are about to start in earnest. Anything that gives a newsroom a good kick in the behind is welcome news.

So, iPadding we go.

Fascinated by the arrival of the iPad and other tablets? Curious as to how it will play out in your newsroom? We can help you lead the discussion, get started with your iPad thinking, and, in no time at all, take your first iPad Baby Steps.

The iPad is coming, and with it comes the chance to reinvigorate old business models and tell stories like never before. Garcia Media is poised to help publishers worldwide seize the opportunities that this new medium will provide.

Contact Garciamedia for more information, and to get the iPad conversation started